Man in the Middle - Jim Nelson
This is the first pandemic related novel that I have read. I'm sure there will be many more. Most of the story takes place over four days in March of 2020. Since the pandemic is still going on, the final outcome is not yet over, but it is an interesting detail that throughout the book Nelson includes the number of cases and number of deaths worldwide and the number of cases and deaths in the United States as of that particular date. The novel ends on July 25, 2020 with 145,860 people dead in the U.S. when "baseball resumed" in the Oakland Coliseum—although there were no people in the stands and all the support franchises were missing. There are now 664,000 death in the U.S. and virus is still going strong.
It is also interesting that both Nelson and his character are unsure of what to do—how to react to the pandemic. Back in March of 2020 it was all new in terms of how to confront the disease, whether it was going to be short term and over in six months or long term and be with us for a long time. Some of the characters don't care—and that's still true. The protagonist is immune compromised, he is also recently separated from his wife, and he has been laid off from his job as a security guard because there is nothing to guard! And then he is shocked to get a new job guarding BitCoin computers.
The story is written in the first person which suits the loner existence. The protagonist seems gray and flat, like a paper doll. There's a doctor that has character and a friendly, old security guard that adds a touch of color. But it is a sad scenario and maybe that fits the world right now.
Writing about the pandemic while it is going on was a bold challenge. Some subjects need time to develop so you can look back on them and say, "Oh, that's what was going on." Nelson certainly writes well, and he tells an interesting tale.
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Aging Smoke & CO Detectors
 It should not be news that things break! Things with operating parts are more prone to breakage than things with no moving parts. I have my grandfather's pocket watch. It's a mechanical device that's still keeping great time after nearly 150 years. I wonder about fancy and expensive digital watches and how long they will last. I doubt if they will be something to pass along to the grandchildren.
Smoke detectors age. Not just the batteries. We all know that we should change the batteries in our smoke detectors every six months. Right? And we know that we're supposed to test them every week. But have you thought about how long the sensor—the thing that actually detects the smoke and/or fire lasts? It's somewhere between five and ten years. At that point the whole thing should be replaced. You might want to pull the unit down off the ceiling and check the date. It's obvious on the newer units. If you can't find a date on the unit, just assume that it's out of date and replace it. I mean it's just your life, we're talking about. (This is some good information from the Canadian Government.)
Same thing is true for CO detectors. CO alarms have a life expectancy of around seven years. All CO alarms produced after August 1, 2009, have an end-of-life warning notification that alerts the resident that the alarm should be replaced. The CO alarm will beep every 30 seconds or display ERR or END. And don't go pulling the batteries out of the CO detector to shut it up! If it isn't reaching the end of its life and it's beeping, there is a serious CO issue in the house. With all the severe weather we've been having, people are bringing their generators inside. Don't do it. Not even in the garage with the door open. you're risking your life.
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